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Stewart Raffill | |
|---|---|
 Raffill in 2014. | |
| Born | 27 January 1942 Coventry, England, United Kingdom |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, director |
| Notable work | |
| Spouse | Diane Kirman (1993) |
| Children | Maria Walker (1978) |
| Relatives |
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Stewart Raffill is a British writer and director. [1]
Raffill was born in England and grew up near Stratford before immigrating to the US and working in the motion picture industry. His writing and directing work in film and TV spans several genres including science fiction, family, comedy and drama. [2]
Raffill made his feature debut as director with The Tender Warrior , starring Dan Haggerty and sold to Warner Brothers. It was filmed on location in Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. [3]
He sold his next script, Napoleon and Samantha , to Disney. Raffill also worked on the film as a producer. The film starred Jodie Foster and Michael Douglas.
He wrote and directed When the North Wind Blows .
Raffill wrote and directed The Adventures of the Wilderness Family with Robert Logan, leading to two sequels. [4]
He followed it with two films with Logan, Across the Great Divide and The Sea Gypsies .
Raffill wrote and directed High Risk , shot in Mexico, starring James Brolin which he later described as a personal favorite. [3] The film got him the job of writing and directing The Ice Pirates , made for John Forman and David Begelman at MGM. [5]
Raffill directed and did uncredited writing on The Philadelphia Experiment that won Best Science Fiction Film at the Rome Film Festival. [6]
Raffill directed and wrote Mac and Me , made to provide royalties to the McDonald's Foundation and starred Jade Calegory, who had spina bifida. The film is frequently cited as one of the worst ever made, but it later attained cult status and was re-released in 2019. [2] [7]
Begelmen hired Raffill to direct Mannequin Two: On the Move . Raffill wrote the original screenplay for Passenger 57 . [8]
Raffill wrote and directed Lost in Africa made for the Tusk charity. He also wrote and directed Tammy and the T-Rex, which was re-released in 2019 and was the official selection for the Fantastic Fest and premiered at Beyond Fest. It starred Paul Walker, Denise Richards and Terry Kiser.
Other credits include A Month of Sundays, starring Rod Steiger, Sal Sapienza and Dee Wallace Stone; Survival Island, starring Billy Zane and Juan Pablo DiPace; Mysterious; and the family musical Standing Ovation.
He moved into directing for TV with The New Adventures of Robin Hood and the TV movie The New Swiss Family Robinson with Jane Seymour and David Carradine, which he also wrote. He directed Grizzly Falls that won the Heartland Award and starred Bryan Brown.
Raffill directed episodes of Pensacola: Wings of Gold and 18 Wheels of Justice , and the TV movie Croc (2007).
| Year | Film | Director | Screenwriter | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | The Tender Warrior | Yes | Yes | Starring Dan Haggerty. [9] |
| 1972 | Napoleon and Samantha | No | Yes | Starring Michael Douglas and Jodie Foster. Produced by Disney Studios. National Association of Theatre Owners Movie of the Month |
| 1974 | Snow Tigers (aka When the North Wind Blows) | Yes | Yes | Distributed by NBC |
| 1975 | The Adventures of the Wilderness Family | Yes | Yes | |
| 1976 | Across the Great Divide | Yes | Yes | Winner - Outstanding Merit Award - So. California Motion Picture Council |
| 1978 | The Sea Gypsies | Yes | Yes | Winner - Film Advisory Board Award of Excellence |
| 1981 | High Risk | Yes | No | |
| 1984 | The Philadelphia Experiment | Yes | No | Winner - Best Science Fiction Rome International Film Festival Fantafestival Award for Best Film |
| The Ice Pirates | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1988 | Mac and Me | Yes | Yes | Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director (Tied with Blake Edwards of Sunset ) Nominated—Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay (with Steve Feke) |
| 1991 | Mannequin Two: On the Move | Yes | No | |
| 1992 | Passenger 57 | No | Yes | #1 at the box office on opening weekend (boxofficemojo.com) |
| 1994 | Tammy and the T-Rex | Yes | Yes | |
| Lost in Africa | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1998 | The New Swiss Family Robinson | Yes | Yes | Premiered on ABC's The Wonderful World of Disney |
| 1999 | Grizzly Falls | Yes | No | Award of Excellence Winner - Heartland Film Festival Marco Island Film Festival - Audience Winner [10] Golden Reel Award Nominee [11] |
| 2001 | Adjustments | Yes | Yes | Dramatic Short Film |
| A Month of Sundays | Yes | No | Winner - Feature Film Award for Best Actor - Rod Steiger - 2001 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival Winner - Best of the Festival - Feature Film - Stewart Raffil - 2002 Atlantic City Film Festival | |
| 2002 | While You Were Waiting | Yes | No | Winner - Silver Award for Dramatic Short Atlantic City Film Festival |
| 2006 | Survival Island | Yes | Yes | |
| 2007 | Croc | Yes | No | Telemovie - Aired on Sci Fi Channel |
| Sirens of the Caribbean | Yes | Yes | Shot on location in the Bahamas | |
| 2010 | Standing Ovation | Yes | Yes | Official Selection - Cape May Film Festival 2011 |
| Year | Show | Episode |
|---|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | Pensacola: Wings of Gold | Episodes: True Stories, A Wing and a Prayer, Cuba Libre, Busted |
| 2000–2001 | 18 Wheels of Justice | Episodes: Two Eyes for an Eye, Through a Glass, Darkly, A Place Called Defiance, Hot Cars, Fast Women, Dance with the Devil |
Nicholas Meyer is an American writer and director, known for his best-selling novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, and for directing the films Time After Time, two of the Star Trek feature films, the 1983 television film The Day After, and the 1999 HBO original film Vendetta.
Joshua Lockwood Logan III was an American director, writer, and actor. He shared a Pulitzer Prize for co-writing the musical South Pacific and was involved in writing other musicals.
The Philadelphia Experiment is a 1984 American science fiction film. It is directed by Stewart Raffill and stars Michael Paré, Bobby Di Cicco, Kene Holliday and Nancy Allen and based on the urban legend of the Philadelphia Experiment. In 1943, United States Navy sailors David Herdeg (Paré) and Jim Parker are thrown forward in time to the year 1984 when a scientific experiment being performed aboard the USS Eldridge suffers a catastrophe. The film follows the two men as they attempt to survive the future and race against time to put an end to the experiment that now threatens the fate of the entire world.
Mannequin is a 1987 American romantic comedy film directed by Michael Gottlieb in his directional debut, and written by Edward Rugoff and Gottlieb. It stars Andrew McCarthy, Kim Cattrall, Estelle Getty, Meshach Taylor and G. W. Bailey. The original music score was composed by Sylvester Levay. A modern retelling of the Pygmalion myth, the film revolves around a chronically underemployed passionate artist named Jonathan Switcher who lands a job as a department-store window dresser and the mannequin he created which becomes inhabited by the spirit of a woman from Ancient Egypt, but only comes alive for Jonathan.
Napoleon and Samantha is a 1972 American adventure drama film directed by Bernard McEveety and written by Stewart Raffill. Filmed in and around John Day, Oregon, it stars Johnny Whitaker and Jodie Foster in the title roles.
Andrew Bergman is an American screenwriter, film director, and novelist. His best-known films include Blazing Saddles, The In-Laws, The Freshman and Striptease.
Thomas Lee Holland is an American screenwriter, actor, and director best known for his work in the horror film genre, penning the 1983 sequel to the classic Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho, directing and co-writing the first entry in the long-running Child's Play franchise, and writing and directing the cult vampire film Fright Night. He also directed the Stephen King adaptations The Langoliers and Thinner. He is a two-time Saturn Award recipient. Holland made the jump into children’s literature in 2018 when he co-wrote How to Scare a Monster with fellow writer Dustin Warburton.
Passenger 57 is a 1992 American action thriller film directed by Kevin Hooks. The film stars Wesley Snipes and Bruce Payne, with Snipes portraying a security consultant who finds himself forced to foil a plot to free a captive terrorist during a commercial airline flight. Critical reviews were mixed, but the film was a box-office success, and made Snipes a popular action hero icon. It also introduced Snipes's famous line: "Always bet on black."
Solarbabies is a 1986 American science fiction film, made by Brooksfilms and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was the second and final film directed by Alan Johnson, who is better known for his work as a choreographer.
Mac and Me is a 1988 American science fiction film co-written and directed by Stewart Raffill. Starring Christine Ebersole, Jonathan Ward, and Tina Caspary alongside Lauren Stanley and Jade Calegory, it centers on a "Mysterious Alien Creature" (MAC) that escapes from nefarious NASA agents and befriends a boy named Eric Cruise. Together, they try to find MAC's family, whom he has been separated from.
The Ice Pirates is a 1984 American comic science fiction film directed by Stewart Raffill, who co-wrote the screenplay with Krull writer Stanford Sherman. The film stars Robert Urich, Mary Crosby and Michael D. Roberts; other notable featured actors are Anjelica Huston, Ron Perlman, Bruce Vilanch, John Carradine and former football player John Matuszak.
Mannequin Two: On the Move is a 1991 romantic comedy film and a sequel to the 1987 film Mannequin. The film stars Kristy Swanson as a "peasant girl" named Jessie who is enchanted by an evil sorcerer's magic necklace, freezing her in the form of a wooden mannequin. She is to remain frozen for one thousand years, or until the necklace is removed by the person who will be her true love. In modern day Philadelphia, she is freed by Jason Williamson, a new employee of the Prince & Company department store and the descendant of Jesse's original love. The two fall in love while avoiding Count Spretzle, the descendant of the evil sorcerer.
Gavin O'Connor is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, playwright, and actor. He is best known for directing the films Miracle, Warrior, The Accountant, and The Way Back.
The Sea Gypsies, also known as Shipwreck, is a 1978 family adventure film directed by Stewart Raffill and starring Robert Logan and Mikki Jamison. The film's tagline is It began as a dream... and became an adventure of a lifetime.
Tammy and the T-Rex, also known as Tanny and the Teenage T-Rex, is a 1994 American science fiction horror comedy film directed by Stewart Raffill and written by Raffill and Gary Brockette. The film, which stars Terry Kiser, Ellen Dubin, Denise Richards, Paul Walker, George Pilgrim, and John Franklin, centers on a high school student named Tammy, whose boyfriend Michael has his brain implanted in the body of a robotic Tyrannosaurus Rex by a mad scientist.
The Tender Warrior is a 1971 film directed by Stewart Raffill and starring Dan Haggerty and Charles Lee. It was Raffill's debut feature as director.
David A. Prior was an American director, screenwriter, and producer. Prior started his career with the horror film Sledgehammer (1983), and the action film Killzone (1985). Shortly after, he co-founded Action International Pictures (AIP), his first directorial effort with this enterprise were Deadly Prey, Aerobicide, and Mankillers released in 1987. Subsequently, Prior made action films until the late 1990s.
James Ward Byrkit is an American film director, writer, and actor. He is best known for directing the science fiction thriller Coherence and co-writing the script for Rango, one of his many collaborations with Gore Verbinski. For Rango, Byrkit starred as several characters, most notably Waffles, a horned lizard. Byrkit also was the conceptual artist on the first three films of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and designed some of the most iconic sequences of the series. Byrkit also directed the short film Tales of the Code: Wedlocked (2011), which serves as a prequel to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003).
When the North Wind Blows is a 1974 American film written and directed by Stewart Raffill. It gave a rare lead role to Henry Brandon.
In Search of Tomorrow is a 2022 documentary film, written and directed by David A. Weiner. It takes the viewer on a year-by-year deep dive into science fiction films of the 1980s, such as Star Wars, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Blade Runner, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Back to the Future, Dune, RoboCop, Aliens, Tron, WarGames, The Terminator, Ghostbusters, Predator, Akira, The Road Warrior, The Abyss, Short Circuit, and several more. The film also examines the science and technology behind the fiction amid insider tales of the creative process.
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